Because he’s been busy taking care of the woman he loves.
And she’s been taking on more responsibilities than normal.
Even still, the man is too smart to miss that something’s changed with his righthand woman, even if she keeps putting him off.
“We talked about this, cookie,” I say. “He won’t miss what’s happening between us for long.”
“I know,” she murmurs. “I just…I want him to enjoy this pause, to enjoy being with Tiff, and not worry about me.”
Sassy and stubborn andsweet.
“I get that, cookie. But eventually he’s going to come out of his love haze.”
“Is he, though?”
I tug a curl. “Yes, gorgeous,” I say, but soften it with a smile. “Still, it’s your choice and”—I cup her jaw, hold her eyes with my own—“if there are other things at play here, things that make you feel like you want to take this slower, then I’m doubly okay with that.”
She frowns. “If I want to take this slower?”
“Things have been pretty intense between us since that night at my office. If the reason that you don’t want to go public with us is because it’s been too fast?—”
“No.” She clambers on top of me, hands coming to my cheeks, eyes filled with an intensity that soothes the ache inside me, the worry I hadn’t really acknowledged was starting to eat at me. “No,” she says then snags her phone from the nightstand. “I’ll call him right now, handsome. I’ll tell him every detail—well, noteverydetail—but enough that he knows exactly how strongly I feel about you so he won’t stage a corporate takeover and reduce Genen-core to its requisite parts.”
I grin, take her phone from her hand, and toss it on the nightstand. “How is it that you talking about a corporate takeover is the height of romance?”
Pink cheeks. “I didn’t?—”
“Cookie,” I say, drawing her down on top of me. “You just said that you like me,reallylike me. You can’t take that back now.”
“Jace—”
“Nope,” I tease. “I have it on record now.” Her nose wrinkles and it’s so fucking cute that I can’t stop my next words. “Don’t worry, gorgeous, I like you,reallylike you too.”
Her inhale is sharp. “Jace.”
Big emotions. Big fears. Baby steps.
But I know for sure that she’s worried about Jean-Michel because she cares about this, aboutus.So, I can be patient. Can go slowly. Can enjoy the fact that even though I don’t have her out in the real world, I have her here. In my bed or hers, falling asleep beside her, waking up with her in my arms.
The rest will come.
“When is your flight tomorrow?” I ask when she sighs and settles against me.
“Early,” she says on a yawn, that nose wrinkling again. “But that means we’ll beat the time change by getting into NYC so we have a full day with the team.”
“You’ll wake me before you go?”
“Handsome,” she begins, pushing up, “you have a long day tomorrow.” She’s not wrong about that. I’m meeting with the board in the evening and that’s going to take a full day of prep on top of my normal responsibilities. “I’ll call you when we land and it’s a reasonable hour here.”
I study her face, wanting to argue.
Then decide that’s a battle I’m not going to win, not tonight anyway.
And pressing this is just going to cut further into her sleep.
I slide my hand into her hair, gently coax her back down onto my chest. “Okay, gorgeous. You win.”
She kisses my chest. “Victory is mine.”
